Waitrose unveils The Perfect Gift 2 with Keira Knightley
Waitrose has unveiled The Perfect Gift 2, the sequel to last year’s festive romcom, in which love comes with a deadline, a rival and a plan with all the ingredients for disaster.
Keira Knightley reprises her role alongside Joe Wilkinson as Phil “Phil Phil”, the lovelorn chap who won her heart last Christmas. They are joined by Alex Hassell as Hugo Bunty-Griffin, a suave new love rival.
Subscribe to TRBThis time, Knightley is about to marry the wrong man at three o’clock. Phil, nursing a broken heart, sets about baking the beef Wellington of his life with help from his friends, then races to the ceremony battling a flat tyre, a dog with a keen sense of smell and a very large stately home.
As he bursts in, his Wellington slides down the aisle and he offers a jar of homemade sauce labelled “Marry Me Instead?”. In the end, Knightley swaps the wedding aisle for the man she met in the Waitrose aisle, and proposes with a cheeseboard ring.
Nathan Ansell, Waitrose chief customer officer, said: “Last year’s The Perfect Gift sparked a huge reaction, and our customers were clear: they wanted to know what happened next.
“So this Christmas we’ve given them a bigger, bolder sequel, with a love rival, a race against the clock and a beef Wellington as an unlikely hero. Every great romcom needs a moment where all seems lost, and ours just happens to be wrapped in pastry.
“Like last year we approached the edits as a film studio would, with trailers to hook you in and the full film available online to give this story the space it deserves.
“We significantly raised the creative and production stakes by extending the mini-film by two minutes, making it an ambitious six-minute cinematic romcom – the longest advert produced by a UK supermarket – while keeping our exceptional food credentials firmly at the narrative core.
“This is our way of giving audiences the happy ending they’ve been waiting for, and we hope it brings a smile, and a little inspiration, to homes across the country this Christmas.”
The film premiered on Waitrose channels including YouTube at 6.30am on 10 November, and will be supported by two shorter, 60 and 30 second movie-style trailers adverts and romcom inspired movie posters, with all teasing the twists and turns of the longer film.
It was created by Wonderhood Studios and directed by ‘One Day’ and Bafta-winning director Molly Manners.
